So, we are a couple of months into 2020 and where are you? Is this where you expected to be when you were planning the year ahead twelve months ago? Well done if you have achieved what you set out to do but don’t worry too much if you haven’t.

Sometimes you need to stand back and take a hard look at your business – and wonder if it needs a new angle.

Did you know that when Starbucks first stared they didn’t sell cups of coffee?

That certainly surprised me when I read it. Starbucks originally started out selling coffee beans and continued to do so for several years. They had opened their first five outlets before they realised they were missing a trick.

If someone wanted to sample their beans, they would brew up a cup of coffee for them in store. Lo and behold, they found people liked drinking coffee. A little bit of lateral thinking and hey presto Starbucks as we know it today was born.

A similar thing happened with Instagram when they decided to concentrate on photo sharing as their original idea, a check-in app, was struggling.

And mobile phones were originally designed for people to make phone calls on. I mean – who knew? Texting was an afterthought add on which simply took off to become a worldwide phenomenon.

What I am saying is that if your business is not as successful as you had hoped take a long, hard look at it and see if there isn’t an angle that you can adapt. Then see where that takes you.